After an intense week of animation, I was able to make a break for it and push some clay in the studio!

I wanted to tackle a new pendant design I've been mentally sculpting for a while now - I call it: The Idol X-Ray. Ever wonder what is inside those ancient stone deities collecting moss in the deep, dark jungles? What if you dropped your Amulet Of Protection on the ground, and where the stone chipped away you made a startling discovery?

Here is the pendant taking shape in ANIMATION-VISION

And finally, the finished sculpt. It is about 2.75" tall, and 2" wide. It will shrink 10% by the time it is molded, pressed, and fired. I'm looking forward to the contrast of ivory bone against grey black stone! Pulling molds this afternoon!

I was able to snap a mold yesterday afternoon. Final cleanup and undercut check on the sculpt:

Foam Core & hot glue mold box setup:

Celebratory Dark n' Stormy:

And this morning I popped the cured plaster mold off of the clay sculpture:

It de-molded cleanly, and I was able to pour a second mold this morning. Hopefully I can get one (or better yet, 2 more) molds off of the original sculpture before it breaks apart. More molds = more pendants when it comes time to press them

Don't know how i have never seen this thread before but your work sir in incredible!
Thank you for the inspiration and hope to some day remodel something and be able
to use some of your awesome art work.

On 2013-06-06 13:58, GROG wrote:You can stack greenware on top of each other. They won't stick together when bisque-fired. (Unless you put underglaze on them.)
So, you can stack your small pendants on your tiles and you have room for more.

True - but I really worry about warping. For my smaller pendants I could probably get away with it, but I feel better keeping all flat pieces well supported on a flat shelf. Perhaps a needless precaution - but I'd rather be safe than warped

I usually don't have a problem fitting pendants in the kiln (they are small and pack together nicely) - it is the tiles that really eat up shelf space. I have a few that didn't make it in this load (partly because they wouldn't fit, and partly because they were still a bit too damp). They are too big to stack on each other while firing.

Love that new pendant sculpt. You do make those press molds quite thick _________________May we all get to have a chance to ride the fast one
Walk away wiser when we crashed one
Keep hoping that the best one is the last one

I do like to make the molds thick. It may be a throwback from my mold making days in Hollywood - production molds made to take abuse and not crack. I want to be sure there is a good 2" of plaster between my tile press arm and the press base. The molds you see of the new pendant are 5.5"x6"x2.5"

Frank Giorgini, author of Handmade Tiles (the go-to source for all things tile) always sets up his molds with 2" of thickness from the highest point of the sculpted tile and 2" around the edges. I've followed his lead and haven't had a mold crack (yet - knock on coconut). The tile press puts quite a bit of pressure on the molds.

I loved the steps being shown on top of each other in a slide show form. I need to learn that. The necklace is great. We are looking forward to seeing you at Oasis. Great work as always, Wendy
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